


Lessons in Dorsal Impalement

by knight_of_thyme (ravenic)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Friendship, Scourge Sisters, and all that comes with them, backstabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 21:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3502790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/knight_of_thyme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>They both know the outcome before the coin even turns once.  Seer and vision eightfold – they have always known the end.  But they played at being blind, and now they will pay.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Vriska teaches Terezi how to stab someone in the back.<br/>Terezi stabs Vriska in the back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons in Dorsal Impalement

**Author's Note:**

> scourge sisters should be a major content warning in and of itself god damn  
> uh another warning a lot of this is detailed descriptions of literal back-stabbing so be warned
> 
> .
> 
> _Sometimes the person you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger_
> 
> _and you taught her how to shoot._  
> 
> 
> . 

Vriska had been showing her how to fight with a sword for a while, but this was the first time Terezi had been uncomfortable about it. “I don’t need to know how to stab someone in the back, Vriska!”  


The blueblood tossed her head. “Of course you do!” she said, rolling her eyes, eight pupils flashing in the moonslight.  


“But it’s not fair! It’s –”  


“Oh come on!” Vriska snapped. “Look,” she amended, as Terezi made to leave. “What if you’ve got some troll, right? You’ve passed judgment and all that dumb stuff – _sorry_ , jeez – but they aren’t listening. No respect for the court or something.”  


Terezi paused. She was fed up and ready to go home and complain about her Sister to her ever-unresponsive (but still _way_ better than anybody else’s because _dragons_ , duh) lusus, but this caught her attention. Some trolls _(coughVriskacough)_ had no respect for the court or the judge, and those ones had to be made to pay even more than the other criminals. Maybe Spiderbitch was on to something.  


Vriska continued, her eyes glittering as she noticed that she had her audience’s attention again. “They’re disrespecting His Honorable Whatsitthing –”  


“Tyranny.”  


“– Yeah, sure, that. Anyway, they’re being rude and thinking that Neophyte Redglare is all web and no venom –”  


“ _You’re_ the spider, not me, dummy.”  


“Shut up I’m trying to explain something. Fine, fine, have it your way, all roar and no flame or whatever bullshit dragons are into, but basically they’ve decided that Redglare is a wiggler and the court is a game for grubs and His Honorable Tyrannosaurus is a scalemate and they’re just done. They’ve got better places to be than with these idiots, aka you. Calm down, I’m not done yet!”  


Terezi settled back. “You’d better get to the point of this story soon, Sister,” she growled. “Redglare does not take lightly to insults.”  


“I’m working on it, I’m working on it! It would go faster if you’d shut up for eight seconds.”  


_It would go faster if you got to the point instead of going around and around the web first,_ Terezi thought grumpily, but she shut up and let her Sister speak.  


“Thank you.” Vriska gave a great put-upon sigh, then shook her hair and continued. “So this rude troll decides she’s done with you, and goes off to do her own thing and be a dumb wiggler because she’s not me so that’s the default. Or you, okay, okay, stop giving me the deathglare of doom, jegus.  


“But yeah, off she’s going. Ignoring you. Disrespecting the court. Whatcha gonna do ’bout it, Neophyte?” Vriska crossed her arms, a venomous grin on her blue lips. “You’ve already passed judgment. She’s done. All that’s left is to carry out the sentence.”  


Terezi hesitated. Jegus, she hated when Vriska was right. “I… I would execute her. It wouldn’t even matter what the original sentence had been, she’s disrespected the court and His Honorable Tyranny. That’s a death sentence.”  


“Exactly!” Vriska crowed. “You stab her in her bloodsdamned back! And that’s what I’ve been wasting my time trying to show you how to do!”  


Terezi rolled her eyes. “All right, all right, you win, you’re right.” At this point it was usually just better to give Vriska the victory she wanted, rather than drag it out. “Get on with it, then. How exactly do I go about carrying out justice on this unforgivably-offensive troll? Since I’m sure you are the galactic expert on backstabbing, Captain Mindfang.”  


_“Well.”_ Vriska moved so that she was standing directly in front of Terezi. She turned away, twisting her head back over her shoulder to see her sister. “Mindfang sure did a lot of backstabbing, literal and metaphorical. But we’ll focus on the literal bit for now.  


“Look. Trolls have a lot of bones, and those’ll scratch or, worst, break your blade if you hit them wrong. There’s the vertebral column, here, and then the supportive-protective thorax-caging bones coming out and around – there’s a bunch of those.” She demonstrated by tracing the lines on her own back, skinny gray arm twisted awkwardly around. “You’ve got to go between them. Turn the blade sideways if you have to; you don’t want it getting stuck. Angling this way might get you the bloodpusher, as long as you don’t hit the scapular bones on the way up, or you can just go straight through – that’ll probably get you the air sacs. Not a fast death, but sometimes you’ve gotta draw out the sentence. Even if you only nick the bloodpusher or the air sacs, you’re still pretty likely to get something important. Put enough force into it and you’ll have them like a skewered oinkbeast, ready for the roasting.”  


Nobody knew troll anatomy like Vriska. After feeding her mom for so many sweeps, the blueblood could have dissected a troll to surgical perfection with one hand and one eye. It wasn’t like Terezi hadn’t killed before – they were the _Scourge Sisters_ , famed and feared across Alternia, and for good reason – but Vriska was the one who had had to learn how to bring down another troll and cut them up into bits small enough to lug back to her mother, back before she had developed her powers enough to make them walk right into her oversized lusus-white mandibles.  


Terezi reached out slowly, tracing bones and soft spaces with one clawtip. Vriska didn’t move.  


Both girls were quiet for a moment. Seer and vision eightfold – both knew this moment meant something, even if they weren’t sure what.  


_One girl in red-and-teal, playing at a role she is destined to inherit, no matter how much blood or tears may be shed along the path, no matter how many lives lost. Her sword-cane is drawn, her scarlet-blind eyes staring at the troll before her. She holds a coin in one hand._  


_The other girl stands tall, defiant despite the shadows in her eyes. She is wearing orange, a sun splayed across her chest, blood-blue wings shedding fairy dust on the floor. Her hands are still stained brown. Terezi can smell it._  


_They both know the outcome before the coin even turns once. Seer and vision eightfold – they have always known the end. But they played at being blind, and now they will pay._  


_One story ends in red and teal, one in sky-blue. They both know which is the only option._  


_But they must keep playing their game. And so Vriska turns away, to hide, to hunt, to kill? – it doesn’t matter._  


_Terezi knows she only needs to take three steps. One, two, three._  


_Skin. Flesh. Bones. So many bones._  


_“ – You’ve got to go between them –”_  


_She doesn’t need eyes to know where her Sister’s bones lie, the exact existence of every inch of the blueblood’s body mapped out in her mind as if she could still see it. But she doesn’t need to see. Not now._  


_“ – Angling this way might get you the bloodpusher, as long as you don’t hit the scapular bones on the way up, or you can just go straight through – that’ll probably get you the air sacs. Not a fast death, but sometimes you’ve gotta draw out the sentence –”_  


_No. Not this one._  


_Terezi takes a single breath, and her sword slides forward like it’s running on spidersilk. The yellow sun turns blue with blood._  


_A green sun blooming as light fades away._  


_Just – Heroic – Just – Heroic –_  


_Just._  


_The Thief falls._  


_“ – You’ll have them like a skewered oinkbeast, ready for the roasting –”_  


_Or a little girl who got tangled in her own bloody blue webs._  


_Terezi stares down at the scent of blue. All those sweeps of knowing just how to angle the blade, just where to point the tip to exact justice, and she’d never done it. She never stabbed anybody in the back – that was Vriska’s job, if anyone’s. But here she is. Vriska died fast, almost instantly. Terezi had been taught well._  


_“Goodbye, Sister.”_  


_Terezi walks away, unable to shake the feeling of sunlight on her eyes, of blue on her hands, of a blade in her own back. Justice has been done, but it doesn’t feel right._  


_And it never will._  


But that is later, sweeps later, after betrayal and death and vengeance and blood and burning light. They are children, playing at games. And for now, that is all they are.

**Author's Note:**

> you cannot begin to understand my obsession with these girls  
> im not even kidding


End file.
